Mammary cancer treatment option instead of spaying? - Page 1

Has anyone been through this and tried treatments vs spaying her....did the treatment work?.....your experience and ideas will be greatly appreciated thank you

Ober...

I'm sorry to learn about your girl having mammary cancer...
How extensive is the mammary cancer, how much has it progressed...?
Is it contained in one breast, showing up as a small hard nodule (tumor), or spread through the milk glands, do you know?

Do you have any idea how long she has had this?
What is her age?

I have had two different experineces with this..
One bitch's condition was very extensive, and one was more localized.

Well I have been through it too many times to count as well as some friends with same.  I am not sure what treatment you are talking about but if you are talking cemo therapy, I would pass as I know some animals that went through this and were miserable.  I have had the tumors removed as long as they are small and non-invasive;  if they have invaded other organs I would not even do that as they may not recover and then you have put them through all that surgery for nothing. 

Vet's are taught to save the animals at sometimes any cost;  I do not agree with this especially in any cancer situation.  I would rather have quality of life for my dogs, whether that means 2 weeks or 2 months or 2 years.  Their is no fix for cancer in dogs and putting them through a gamat of surgeries is not  a good way for them to live and the surgeries are very painful and mannary cancer is very, very invasive.  I wish you luck on any journey you choose but think long and hard before you do it.  Best of luck  Nan

Depending on her age it is probably not going to make any difference whether you spay her or not.  JMO  Nan

Before you can make ANY decision as to which course, if any, you want to pursue, treatment-wise, you need to have your vet do x-rays of her chest and abdomen to see if the cancer has progressed to the lungs or other internal organs.  The results of these will help guide your next steps--she may not even BE a candidate for surgery, if the cancer has moved to the lungs and is already well-established. :(

That said, the majority of mammary tumors are actually benign, and surgical excision of them is curative although additional tumors may still develop as time goes on, and benign cancers can mutate into malignancies under the right circumstances (such as a continuing supply of estrogen due to the bitch remaining intact).  I'm not sure why you ask about treatment versus spaying, since there's nothing to be gained by leaving her intact, whether you decide to do chemotherapy or not, and I don't know if you'd find an oncologist who would do chemo without her not only having the existing tumor(s) removed, but spayed as well.

My female had it when she was six years old. She had recently been spayed. When I found it, it was about the size of a grape nut, and I thought it was a sticker that had gotten under the skin. Vet said it was cancer and sure enough it was. They took one mammary. Knock on wood, I may have caught it early enough; she is 8 now. Keep your fingers crossed for her.

Yes let them have as good of quality of life for as long as possible.  I have done from a radical masectomy years ago and will never put another dog through that as it only bought her about 3 months of quality to just removing a pea size tumor which bought that bitch a few years and a litter later to find out she had luekemia (forgive my spelling).  So I do check all my females regularly;  and if I find even so much as a nodule the size of a pencil tip it comes out;  but even that does not even matter as it is going to do what it is going to do.  It's a monster not to be reconciled with.

And I am so sorry to deliver this news, you would think by now something or some kind of treatment would be successfully delivered to these dogs but NO;  that is not the case and that is the case of ALL TYPES OF CANCER.  There is no treatment for the dogs that has been successful;  just money makers and putting the dogs through horrific surgeries with not so good outcome.  So sorry,  Nan

That is why I am such an advocate of doing any type testing possible before dogs are bred to eliminate anything possible that we can as you never know what is in store for these dogs;  also by the way, mammary cancer CAN BE HERITARY.  So if you have bitches that have been bred that have a past history of mammary cancer, be sure you check their female offspring regularly and that goes for any type cancer, not just mammary cancer.  The bitches can pass this on.  Again, so sorry,  Nan

Possibly the ONLY reason I can think of to spay??  I even question that.

And I do agree with the above statement to x-ray chest and abdoman before anything else is done;  if it is in her chest  or any other vital organ;  I would let her be and enjoy every second with her, make your lives the best of the best together.  Have fun and love each other and age really has nothing to do with this.  Just quality.  N

Nans gsd wrote:

There is no treatment for the dogs that has been successful;  just money makers and putting the dogs through horrific surgeries with not so good outcome. 

Sorry, Nans, that statement is simply not true.  Certain forms of lymphoma are extremely treatable, for example, as are some mast cell tumors, and most dogs do NOT experience the same type of side effects from chemotherapy as humans experience. With some mammary tumors, if left in place, the skin becomes ulcerated, draining tracts develop and infection sets in--to NOT surgically remove such neoplasms is unequivocably NEGLECT on the part of the owner.

As for 'horrific surgeries', again, the outcome varies from dog to dog. At 12.5 yrs of age,  my Hexe had a excisional biopsy done when I discovered the first signs of a mammary tumor, and a month later I had the vet go back and do a full chain mastectomy on one side, along with removal of the inguinal lymph node, after the pathology report indicated that the surgical margins were showing evidence of progression beyond that affected gland.  She recovered uneventfully from both surgeries, and she enjoyed another 2 years of good quality life. 

Decisions as to whether or not to pursue chemotherapy must be made individually, after good research as to the protocols available, the expected outcome (both best- and worst- case scenarios), and the logistics of doing the treatments.  The location of the chemo center, the frequency of the treatment, the after-treatment restrictions and risks, and the expenses all have to be factored in as well.  But to issue a blanket statement that chemo is useless, that there's no effective treatments available for any type of canine cancer and surgical excision of masses is butchery is simply not factual, and I can't allow it to pass by unchallenged.

Thanks, Vonissk. I have seen people chase cancers up one side and down the other, which I will never do. That surgery was pretty painful. If it comes back, I will have to make an unpleasant decision, and this is my all time favorite dog. Sucks.